Archive:Before the Angels came
by Kasan Soulblade
Summary: A archive of short stories pre TOS game, mainly centering around the characters from Sylvarant, expect some Tethe'alla ficlets as well however.
1. Cold spot

A/N: As my computer is down I am transfering everything I have in my notes over, this will make my acount a little chaotic as I will be possibly transfering a few of these oneshotsinto Shard of Regeneration at a later date, but I have no way to save my work now save through here. So just bare with me I guess.

Lloyd Raine bonding.

TOS ficlet, **one shot**

Cold Spots

Hatred… it started as dislike at first. He grimaced as a stinging liquid was poured across his side, the pain jarred him out of his thoughts even as the adults babble around him lured him back in. It was scary, this cold angry lump in him, this building pit in his heart. It scared him, because he knew the gentle warmth of friendship, the fierce fires of love and paternal protection, everything that was good it seemed was warm and this spot of cold that was in so deep in a place that was always warm…. It scared him.

He shivered from fear from cold.

"Shh… It's alright son." A calloused hand patted his shoulder and he felt a bit of warmth surge through him.

Yet there was still that numbing scary cold.

There was a cold part of his heart, an icy part behind a wall. There was a twisted place where the cold had a sanctuary, where the ice had a home. It thrived in that small little nook, and no matter his dad's warmth, no matter the love, it would not be burned away. And he couldn't ignore it, couldn't fully grasp the warmth and be lost in it with the cold. It was like walking on a good day with an ice cube running down your back; it was a small ice cube but it was still there.

He hated that feeling, that cold angry feeling. He hated his hared, but after what had happened he couldn't let go of it. He couldn't make himself not angry, he could not let go of this, not even after the pain went away.

Above him the adults talked, above him and through him they talked and didn't make sense.

"There's going to be a scar.'

"He's going to be alright then?"

"Would I be fretting about a scar if he weren't? I don't know how deep the blade went in, but from what I could see of Ivan's sword it wasn't that deep. What really worries me is how glossy the blade was, I think he dipped it in something foul before he ran Lloyd through. I've already dosed him for the toxins in his blood that I could detect, but I'm going to cover everything to be safe. My magic isn't fool proof after all."

"Ms. Sage… thank you for tending my boy, when can he come home?"

"A week." A woman said with calm authority gathered by years of experience. "He will be safe with me, but I fear for Genis."

"Aye, I'll gut that son of a bitch's son if I…"

"You'll be exiled at best executed at worse." There was a sad laugh; he never imagined someone could laugh sadly. "Oh Dirk, I can see where Lloyd gets it from! Here's what we'll do…"

There voices became whispers, and the hisses hurt and made the gash in his side hurt so he just closed his eyes and went to sleep.

X

Poor little child, he doesn't deserve this, he's been through enough already isn't not knowing enough?

Raine smiled as the bundle on her brother's bed stirred. Brown hair poked out from under the covers and small hands gripped the blankets. Glazed brown eyes were revealed as the cover went down; he looked at her shyly from the giant eye lid of wool, confused but not scared. It was an interesting reaction.

"Hello." Raine smiled at the boy brightly, she used the exact same voice that she would open class. Not that he'd know, being what she called a "chronically late arrival".

"Hi Ms mean… err Ms. Sage…"

"Well that wasn't very nice!" She put her hands on her hips and favored him with a glare.

To her complete surprise he blinked and nodded. She would have expected some clowning, or an argument, or something… But he was obedient in her home even when he wasn't obedient in her class. It was probably the wound talking, the pain muffling his real personality.

"How are you feeling?"

"My side hurts." He said sadly, looked at something past her. "And I'm a little cold…"

"I'll get you another blanket."

He said nothing, only stared at her and looked around, but was eerily quiet. For someone who she knew was a chatter box, who she knew was antsy, the stillness, the quiet, were unnerving. Still he remained uncharacteristically meek and mild while she tucked him in with another blanket.

"Are you hungry?" She said at last, trying not to reveal how his lacks of enthusiasm, his lethargy, were scaring her. "Thirsty?"

"Un uh…" He slithered under the blankets. "I'm gunna sleep now Ms. Sage."

He had been sleeping the whole night; it was mid day right now! But perhaps that's what he needed to heal. Despite her show of knowledge she knew little. Oh she could tend scraped knees, and small cuts, colds, flu's, and various other small calamities, but this was her first battle wound.

But then it was his first too.

X

"That boy is a murderer, he hurt my Ivan and…"

"Erick." Raine glared at the man, he'd ambushed her in the market place while she was buying what she needed. She had little doubt that this was how Genis felt when the man's son strolled up behind her and pounced. Still she was no child, and Ivan was only using words, not blows. The experience was still an unsettling one. Grimly she faced him, a basket in one hand, the long handle clutched in one hand, the other hand pinned to her hip. She busied her hands so no one could see how they were shaking. "Your _son_ has a black eye and a bruise on his arm, it's sore, but it's not going to kill him. I on the other hand had to treat a near fatal sword wound from your son. If you want a murderer then look at the boy under your roof and leave the boy under mine alone."

There was a murmur of anger from the crowd, a tension that all but screamed, "how dare a tainted blood elf challenge the human mayor of Iselia!".

"That boy is a menace, he provoked the fight…"

"You lying..." Raine sputtered, and then dropped her voice to a whisper. "You listen to me." She dropped the basket and snatched the man by the front of his tunic. "Your son attack my Brother, then he nearly killed my Brother's friend, and unless you want me to bring Lloyd out and show just how bad those wounds your boy inflicted on him in front of the whole town you will be quiet and leave us alone."

He fell silent, knowing that if his son was branded as violent now he would never have a chance at making the Mayor-ship latter on, thus guaranteeing an easy retirement and life for himself and his blood.

He sneered, brushed off her hand and took a step back.

"I find it funny a foul breed, a tainted blood is taking care of another of their kind."

"Lloyd's human," She grumbled picking up the basket. "And he is our friend."

"Raised by a tainted blood, coddled by tainted bloods, he is a tainted blood, not one of us."

Raine stared at the Mayor who bowed mocking to her.

"Take care of him well Ms. Sage, he is all yours.'

Then he left, he left her alone and went to his home. She had won, he had left, and she was safe. Yet never had victory tasted like defeat.

X

"How are you feeling?" Raine asked while Lloyd faithfully spooned up the chicken soup that Phadria had brought for them both for dinner.

"My side doesn't hurt as much Ms. Sage." Lloyd said quietly, he took another bite. "And Phadria's cooking's really really good."

"Is it, well I asked the recipe from her so I'll give it a try tomorrow."

"Oh, that'll be nice…" Lloyd coughed something into the soup, a word that sounded like 'not' but she did not call him out on it.

"You didn't answer me, how are you feeling?"

"My side hurts a little less." Lloyd repeated himself, stared at her with troubled dark eyes. "And I'm a little cold."

He shouldn't have been. Lloyd was wrapped in ever blanket in the house, scooted as close to the fire as she dared move the bed, her mana gently coaxing his small body to produce more heat. He should not have been cold. As a matter of fact he was showing physical signs of being hot. Accelerated sweating, a faint red around the face.

"Are you cold really?" She gave him a long look and he flushed, stared at the floor.

"Yes."

"Why are you embarrassed to say that? If you're cold I'll ask Phadria to lend us some blankets, but you don't look cold."

"I'm cold, but not a brrr it's cold cold. I'm cold here." He wormed out an arm from under the covers and touched his chest.

"Your heart is cold?" Raine frowned in confusion, concern.

He said nothing, only looked at her and bust into tears. Startled she put down her food and went to him, held him until the tears ran out.

It took a long time.

X

"What's wrong?"

"My side hurts and…"

"Lloyd," her fingers were ticklin' his head, petting him. "What's wrong?"

"I'm cold."

"Your heart?"

"It's cold and I can't make it not cold." He sniffled into her chest, she smelled like ink and dust. It was a funny smell.

"Tell me about your heat cold."

"Well it doesn't have the sniffles, like a cold cold… but it is cold and it makes me cold when I think 'bout…"

"About?"

"It's a secret." He whispered, looked into the dark behind his eyes to avoid her gaze.

"Lloyd, if you keep it a secret then I can't help you."

"But it's a secret and I promised… but it's a special secret that I don't know if I should tell someone else…" Lloyd scrunched up his small face in deep thought. "So how 'bout this, I'll tell you so you can tell me if I should tell you?"

The silver haired half-elf's lips twitched real funny like.

"Alright, that sounds like a marvelous idea."

"See I can be smart like you and Genis sometimes."

"I guess you can be."

She petted his head.

"Now will you tell me?"

He took a deep breath and sighed, then looked at her for a long time and then at long last nodded. And he told her, everything.

X

Rain stared at the boy, not quiet believing as he literally told her everything. From the verbal attacks that Ivan constantly hurled upon him, to the fist fights, to the fact that he had even began saving his brother long long ago. He told her of his home and a little of being raised by a dwarf, he told he of wild rides on a dog's back and a sad stone in the shadow of a house. Lost in shadow it was meant to be forgotten.

It was not forgotten, never forgotten, never forsaken, despite how it was supposed to be.

So many "supposed to be's" and one fall had destroyed them all.

He missed his mother and went outside to talk to her because she could never come in. He missed his human father and he would never come home.

He was home and yet never home, loved and yet missed.

And he was cold, there was a cold place where all of that missing and hurt went and was forgotten.

But never forsaken, he could not forsake the cold because he would forsake the warm as well.

And it was making him cold, that cold steel sword had breeched the wall and some of the cold was coming out now, coming into him, and it was making him scared.

She recalled her own cold places, glimpsed flashes of memory, her holding a child in her arms and begging on the street, begging to be let in. Of cooking a meal through wails and sobs of a baby, a baby that was not her own yet was her own. Her brother Genis, there had been so many cold nights, alone, yet not alone. His cries her only companion, a comfort and a pain.

There was a place, a shadowed place where she was supposed to forget and not remember.

A stone monolith that was wreathed in shadows, it was meant to be forgotten, and sometimes despite the warmth of passion that the ancient relics brought her there was a finger of ice under it all too.

"I think." She said as she held him, as his telling had made him cry again. "I understand about cold heart spots Lloyd. I think we all have them sometimes." Raine tilted his face up and looked up at him. "It's easy to hide them, stuff them in a closet and make them not there anymore. But you want to know what?"

"What?" He looked at her in wonder.

"No matter how cold it is, you bring that ice out into the sun and eventually it'll melt, I just takes time. And then you want to know what's fun about the left over cold water?"

"What?" He looked at her, so earnest and serious it took a lot not smile.

"You put it in a bucket and you take it to someone who makes you mad and dump it on there heads."

He laughed and she smiled, stroked his head, and as he cuddled against her she was able to show to the darkness how relieved she was that he was acting a little more like himself.

X

Months passed, the wound healed and she was startled one day to find it was snowing. It was a thin snow, a skin of cold white, and she decided to cancel classes so the children could run about in it. She though studied the cold and made lessons around it, made plans and lectures as she watched the fluffy flakes fly.

She was startled when Lloyd came in, willingly carrying a bucket. There was two firsts. One where he had come to class when there was none, and second where he was holding a bucket not against his will.

"Hi Professor Sage!" He grinned at her, and set the bucket of snow and ice by the fire.

"Lloyd, what in heaven's name are you doing?"

"Nothing?" He grinned, and she knew he was lying. "OK something, something dumb, but not dangerous dumb."

"Another prank Lloyd, as long as it's not me that you soak then I won't protest."

He grinned and gave her the shock of her life.

"Why'd I soak my Aunt, that's really mean and I don't think families do that sort of thing do they?"

"Not to my knowledge… Wait… Aunt?"

"Aunt." He said simply. "You like an Aunt to me so… umm it's a little late but can I start calling you Aunt, in private?"

"I don't know what to say…' She blushed, startled by this, certainly he was over stating his feelings or something. "I'm not… not by blood so…"

"So what, sometimes blood doesn't matter right? I mean Dad's a dwarf but I'm not short or anything. So does it matter?"

Raine stared at Lloyd for a long long moment, he was what, twelve? Certainly this was just childish words coming out with little meaning.

"I guess it doesn't."

"Great!" He smiled and picked up the bucket.

"Lloyd… what are you doing with that?"

"I'm gunna dump some ice water on Ivan."

"That's nice…" She said absently, wondering if he had meant it, about the Aunt comment that was. "Go ahead and do that."

"Really, thanks, you're the best Aunt ever… I'll see you tomorrow Professor!"

"Yes… we'll be doing a.."

The door slammed shut behind Lloyd as he all but ran from her lecture.

Less then five minutes later.

"IRVING! YOU GET BACK HERE YOU FREAK!"

"Not a chance Ivy boy!"

"I'M GUNNA SKIN YOU ALIVE YOU FREAK! GET…BACK…Here…" Ivan drifted across her window, he was panting up a storm as he leaned against the wall of the school building. "Damn you, you little bastard I'll skin everyone you and your family alive."

"Let it go Son, he's gone for now."

The mayor's voice, she shrank back into her chair despite herself, shook at the hate in Erick's voice.

"Little bastard." Ivan hissed. "Martel Damned little runt…"

"It's his dwarven taint boy, he can't help it."

Ivan snorted. "I can beat it out of him, first he beat me up for attacking the runt, then he pulls out some crap about me not having honor for fighting his little brother instead of him, then he dunks me. He's a Moon-Touched if I ever saw one."

"Aye," Erick draped a hand over Ivan's shoulders. "And he's not ours to deal with yet, he can coddle the point ears all he likes, eventually it'll get him in some bad spot, just in Martel's time. Then you can finish what you started, just wait boy, right time'll come."

They drifted off, and Raine recalled the tales and the promise and the most recent words from Lloyd's mouth.

The fear went away, the cold fear in her heart went away and she went back to watching the snow fall.

Perhaps being an Aunt was no so bad a thing, there were worse family to have then Lloyd.

She smiled fondly at the image of Lloyd dunking Ivan from behind, laughed, and decided that that was enough lessons for one day.


	2. Tear Intelligencer

_Review Response_

_GamecubeGril1: This stuff is all pre-written in a folder; I had it all in my comp and was going to submit it as one big work when I had twenty stories alas the computer fried so I am transferring it yet again and just posting it as I get it done. One-shots I can do, but it's the longer fics I need my notes for._

Tear Intelligencer

"What's the matter baby?" A hand shoved him into the earth. He grunted, caught himself and resisted the urge to cry in pain as his knees scraped against unyielding earth. "Gunna cry?"

_Don't ever give them that satisfaction; don't ever let them see you cry because if you give them what they want they'll only come back for more._

Wiping his face he managed to stand, he quietly picked up what he'd dropped, a book and some papers, and those safely tucked under his arms he went on his way.

X

That was life, walking around and being shoved. Sometimes being hit, but mostly it was being shoved. That was life, life because he had pointy ears and was different from everyone else. If he wasn't short, if he didn't have those horrible pointy ears they'd leave him alone wouldn't they? While logic said yes because it answered all their taunts and made _them_ lose the ability to throw their words in his face something in him said no. They'd never stop, there would always be a difference, even if he couldn't see it there would be a difference between him and them. He had always wondered what that difference was until he'd met someone who knew the ins and outs of bullies, having been where he'd been once before. His friend, his _human_ friend, had given him an insight a small crumb of comfort. There was a difference between him and _them_, _they_ were jerks, _they_ were the jerks and he wasn't. It was a small comfort, a thin comfort, and he'd take all of those he could.

X

"Hey Genis, what's up?"

Genis let his lips curl in a smile, dropped his sulky guarded expression and smiled for the first time since recess started. He looked up and Lloyd looked down at him. Legs wrapped around a thick branch, brown hair hanging over his rounded pink ears but pointing to the ground the human of sixteen smiled despite hanging from a branch upside down. Or maybe Lloyd smiled because he was hanging upside down, who knew with Lloyd?

"You are, up in a tree."

"Why do you have to be so liborrol?"

"Literal Lloyd, the proper pronunciation of the word is literal."

"Pro-non-sense-ate-shin?"

"Nevermind!"

"So watch ya doing?"

"I am wondering if your poor pronunciation and your sub-par intellectual ability are contagious."

"Huh? Ok I didn't understand that so it had to be a sneaky dumb joke right?"

"Yep." Genis grinned and Lloyd laughed.

"Well I didn't get it, but I got it."

"Un huh… which of course means…"

"-in one ear out the other."

They both said the last together, it was after all an old joke, ancient even, well as ancient as anything could be between an adolescent and a child.

"Bored bored bored…" Lloyd swayed on the branch, rocked back and forth, the motion made his hair sway with the rest of him. "I wanna go fishing but it takes too long."

"Well I want to conduct an experiment on the…."

"Whoa whoa, no experiment talk OK! You know I can't even follow your lectures any better then I follow Raine's!"

"Oh, sorry I forgot."

"You just get caught up in stuff so of course you forget little things like how dumb I am." Lloyd yawned and stretched. "It's so warm and quiet… I could take a nap."

"Upside down?"

"I've napped in weirder places." Lloyd shifted around a little, then suddenly his eyes flared open, seemed to absorb everything they saw. "What's really going on Genis, really?"

Genis blinked, startled by the intensity of Lloyd's voice and stare.

"N… nothing…"

"Un huh, and Noishe's a rabbit who thinks he's a dog."

"With those ears you never know." Genis grinned, and Lloyd did not return it, only gave him a long hard look that was older then both their years combined.

"Ivan huh?"

"Of…" Genis blushed at Lloyd's "I'm not Raine trust me OK" glare. "Yeah, Ivan, you know how it is."

"Do you wanna know how it is, really?" Lloyd grumbled to the air. "It sucks. He kicks my butt when we fight now so he thinks it's OK for him to go after yours."

Genis grimaced, recalled just how bad what Lloyd called "getting his butt kicked" really had been.

"So what'd the bastard do this time?"

And that was all that was needed to get Genis to start talking, and for the stinging behind his eyes to grow and bud into full blown tears. He cried a bit as he talked, he could cry now that he was safe.

Lloyd knew where Genis had been, was still there himself, and for someone normally dumb he was pretty smart in this. It was Lloyd's advice he followed then he got shoved and knocked around by people twice his size.

It was the advice Lloyd learned first hand when he had done all the wrong things.

_You never gave them what they wanted_, that was the first rule and the second…

_Have someone you trust to talk to._

Genis gulped, wiped his eyes though he smiled while he did so. Lloyd was now cussing out Ivan, something that Genis didn't have the guts to do. Lloyd was brave enough or the both of them, handed out bravery and listening, and said what needed saying even when no one else wanted to. Normally it was a bad thing, especially when he yelled "boring!" one day in history, but here it was good.

"When'd you get so smart?"

"What? Did you just call me smar… ahhh!"

So surprised was Lloyd he lost his grip and slid from the tree and landed right on his head.

"Oww…"

Genis laughed. "I meant dumb, if there was any hope that you were smart now it's as gone as your brains!"

"Shut up!" Lloyd dragged himself to his feet nursed his aching skull. "That's so it! You, are gunna get dunked!"

"You and what army?" Genis stuck his tongue out.

Snarling a few words Lloyd ran after Genis, laughing the young wizard summoned spans of ice and Lloyd Colette-stepped all the way back to Iselia.


	3. unknown flashfic

Unknowing

(Flash fic alert)

Closing his eyes, caged the few tears within. He rested by the stone, his mother's stone. It was a grave, carved by inhuman hands; left blank for no one knew what would best be put there. There were flowers, those carved where they would someday underscore a name, someday…

It was always someday.

Until that day came he lay in the stones' shadow, a blanket bundled around his shoulders. It was night of course and like always he stared at the stars. They were beautiful, flecks of silver catching the moonlight and shining down that ghostly light on the world. Things certainly looked different at night, and there were the stars…

He wished he knew why he liked them, who had made him like them.

There was a bark, a whine, Lloyd smiled, stretched and slung the blanket that was hanging from his shoulders over his dog. Noishe wagged his tail as they both shared the blanket and leaned against each other to stare at the night sky. There were a few unknowns in his life, yeah, but there were some things he didn't need to know. Some things so simple that he didn't need to have them explained. Drawing the blanket over Noishe's shoulders, Lloyd smiled, fondly scratched the tuft of green fur between those large silken ears.

Together they sat, side by side, leaning against each other, staring at the stars.


	4. Alien Dreams

Alien Dreams

He sighed, hunting, running, flying, it got confused in his minds at moments of sleepiness. Sometimes he dreamed that he had wings, other times he had hands, and once ever blue moon -and he meant that in the most literal sense- he dreamt he had fins. During those dreams images of tarter sauce and lemon slices on the side seemed to pop into his mind... Or worse yet a bowl, being put on some adolescent human's table in a tiny little bowl to spend a time shard of his eternity swimming around and around and getting no where. He'd woken up screaming from those set of dreams, and his cries would send the red clad swordsman out of his bed, tromping down a flight of stairs, and running outside to comfort him It was nice to know that despite not being human that humans could care for him, he'd found that first with the black clad winged one, and now continued to find that comfort and comradery with that human's son.

Warm, agile, forepaws... No, hands, they were called 'hands'. Brushed away the wet tracks running from his eyes. He sniffled, but the tears had stopped now and wouldn't be back for a while.

"There, better?"

"Whine..." He wagged his tail half heartedly, it would never be better, not fully, but Lloyd wouldn't quite understand that would he?

"One of these days Noshy I bet you'll tell me what these dreams are about."

Images of wings and fins faded in the back of his mind, he whined and licked Lloyd's face. The chaos of his existence settled for a little and he remembered that he was in his large lupine form. All his late night confusion fell before one crystal clear thought.

_You're not going to be around though when that happens, you'll be dead before I even spend on second in my next form, probably centuries in your grave._

He had to wonder again at the angel's sanity when he decided to be a father, when he had mated with the brown haired girl it had only seemed to be fun and games to the Protozoan... Certainly there was affection between them -all good matings were like that, filled with affection- but to have offspring? Madness, madness to the eternal, to watch one's child grow old and die, to watch ones children and grandchildren and great grandchildren fade away into death.

All clear and coherent thought went out the window when Lloyd found the 'spot' the wonderful glorious spot that demanded he lift a paw and start scratching... Ohh that felt good!

"Now I bet you're feeling a little better eh Noshy?"

Noishe sighed in bliss as those agile hands went under his chin and scritched.

"Bark!"

"Scoot fur ball." Lloyd pushed him into the pen and then squirmed his way in. What in Origin's name was the boy...?

Lloyd sat down in the pen, drew one of his wooden swords and Noishe stared at him in confusion.

"You think I'm gunna go to bed when some monster's just waiting for me to leave so it can scare you again?" Noishe sighed, Lloyd would never in a million years comprehend. Still the company was nice. "Don't sigh at me, Dad wont mind, and if he does well... I don't care so there."

Lolling his tongue out in mute laugher Noishe wagged his tail. Never in _two_ million years would Lloyd figure it out, after all this was the boy who was still having trouble with his multiplication tables. Even Noishe, a "dog", knew what twelve by twelve was. He folded his legs under him, curled and Lloyd snuggled against him, sword still in hand.

"Don't worry Noishe, I'll keep all the monsters away, I promise."

In that, Noishe did not doubt Lloyd in the least.

"'Night Noshy!"

"Bark!"

And there was nothing more to be said between them till dawn.


	5. a riddle

_One-shot flash fic/riddle/poem-ish/thingie... Try to figure out who the narrator is before the end. I'll put up the official result Wednesday but till then guess away and enjoy this piece of fluff. Strangly I got the idea from a little poem Lil-Samuu tossed me a link to. Or rather the idea pounced me while reading the poem._

Sleeps sleep sleep sleep... that's all that's ever done around here! Well it's time to wake up, yes I said wake up, now Lloyden!

"Not now"

That's how it is, is it?

Well that's how it never is around here, and you best get used to it.

It's time to get up, and if you don't right now I'll make you!

Oh... someone's getting superior, a little smug, a little arrogant. It's time to knock you down a peg. I said get up, you _will_ get up, that's the rule, get used to it.

Ha, not liking that bed without the blankets! Thought you'd trick me again by stuffing them under you? I only fell for that once and my tactic to making you get up still works like a charm.

Approve?

Well approve or not it's always worked since day one, now that your awake there's a lot to do today and...

No, don't you dare go back to bed!

That's it! Time for another tactic, and knowyou've only brought this onto yourself.

Oh, now comes the begging for forgiveness?

Live and learn Lloyden, live and learn. You should have just gave in and listened the first time.

The water will be cold so early in the morning, let's find out how cold. You can get soaked and tell me all about it...

Yes, now that sounds like a good idea!

Come on, no running, that's the way. See, you should have just been this obedient first time around.

What am I going to do with you little one?

Oh, _now_ you kick and thrash.

_Now_ you see where we are going. But being stronger than you does have it's quirks.

That and having a death hold on your belts.

Come along Lloyden, come along, cold water soakings for no one -well unless it's winter I guess- and we mustn't let that water get too warm!

It's done, now fully saturated you chatter your teeth and yell at me.

It's not "fair", well let me tell you listening to your snoring hardly counts as fair!

Now that you're up we have much to do, places to go and...

How stubborn _can _you get?

You go get another set of clothes and swear to go to bed...

And you just locked me out of our room, that does it!

When I get this door open you are dead Lloyden, you hear me!

If only I can work the door open...

Without breaking it down, of course.

That might just proveto be a bittricky.


	6. a morning bath the answer

A morning bath

Lloyd Noishe one shot

_For those who guessed… yeah it was Noishe, and this is the story/dribble that gave me the idea for the poem, it goes a little differently then the poem did but… oh well…_

"Whiiine…"

"No!" Lloyd curled into a ball and tucked all the blankets around him in a shell to ward off his dog's secret "if puppy eyes fails" trick. "I don't wanna go to school Noishy."

There was a creek, the bed tilted under a massive weight being added to it, and a black shape blotted out most of the light that streaming through the fabric. Something pointed, cold, and wet, poked at the blanket and sniffed loudly.

"Blanket shield beats nose!" Lloyd chirped, secure in his safety. "You lose Noishy, let me go to bed now!"

"Bark!"

If a bark could mean "no" then the answering loud bark meant "No! Never!".

"Well you can't puppy eye and you can't nose me, so you lost Noishy. You can go back to your room and wait for Mr. Dirk to come and bring you some chicken for breakfast."

"Bleh!"

Lloyd pulled the covers away from his face to see Noishe loll his tongue out and look disgusted.

"You ate all the jerky last night." The eight year old Lloyd said with a grin. "You were a pig."

"Whiiine!"

"Were too."

"Whine bark!"

"Were too!"

"WHiiinE!"

"Were too were-too-were-toooooo!"

"Woof…" Noishe rolled his eyes, but his tail wagged. Knowing what that meant Lloyd quickly ducked into his shell while Noishe sniffed around the edges of the blanket sometimes thrusting with his head to get Lloyd to squeak and roll to the side to avoid the attack.

Grinning, Noishe firmly herded his charge out from under the blanket and announced his victory by lolling out his tongue and licking the boy's vulnerable back.

"Ewww… Ick, now I need a bath Noishy!"

Happy to comply –after all little human's didn't smell all that great anyways- the dog nipped the boy's pants by the waist and carried the squirming human outside.

It was perhaps halfway down the stairs that Lloyd realized exactly what was going to happen.

"Nooo I'll be good Noishy! I will, I promise! Don't make me take a bath!"

It was only a few moments later, despite all the thrashing and cries for help that Lloyd was let go of, right into the clear cold waters of a stream.

"Bad doggie!"

Noishe only lolled his tongue out and wagged his tail with glee.


	7. The Awakened

The Awakened

_Funnily enough, a Phadria, Lloyd fanfic. Got the idea from the song "Only hope" (I'm kinda addicted to it and that's very strange as my taste generally runs to more darker rougher music) this was the verse that gave me the idea "I am awake in the infinite cold…" as it goes, it kinda fits this story. It's something of a sequel to "Enlightened" and is set a few years after the events of that story, so I put it in the "Before the Angels Came" Archive._

"Most holy, I thank you for allowing me to see yet another dawn. By this sight before me is my faith reconfirmed. Light banished the dark, and the sun purges the night of all it's fell beasts and the smothering folds of shadow that they are spawn. Amen."

Such a strange prayer, the first verse was one of gratitude, the second and third almost war like… It was a disjointed and clumsy thing, but it _was_ the Morning Prayer, and she must utter it upon sacred stones every morning.

Such was her duty as a priestess of the Goddess.

She stood, her duty done she could leave. She could now leave this temple that had all been but abandoned when its priest had been forced from his post. She grieved; perhaps most of the town did after Tylor's exile. But the mayor -Goddess give her patience with the man!- had a point. A man who dared defy the Desians and defend an outcaste child -priest or no- would only bring the wraith of the Desians down upon the heads of Iselia.

Such a man could not be around, should not even be alive, but Tylor was both alive and around and the cleanest way would be to remedy the latter.

So what the mayor had ordered the church had to support.

Phadria looked upon the empty temple and sighed, then stood, her joints popping and creaking. While alarming she was used to it –and as she understood it about the whole process of aging she'd best get used to it, it wasn't going to get better anytime soon! She managed a thin smile; the trials of the Goddess were many. When the body failed the soul must accept its flawed vessels limitations, so went the writ of Martel.

If only she could blindly follow, could blindly believe, but that rebellious priest had left something of his taint upon her. His questions, his defiance, his example… She'd seen a man torn, a man twisting to unnatural patterns by his love of duty and love itself. His love of the church, his love of the children, it had nearly ripped him in half, had nearly broken his heart. Wild with pain, he could have turned on them both.

In all regards he should have, no mortal after all could stand the Trials, only the Chosen could stand the Trials.

Yet Tylor had stood his own trials, and while not Devine they were as hard as those the Angels thrust upon their Vessel.

On the surface, to those who didn't know him, he had left with nary a murmur of protest.

She wondered -as she made her way past the pews that were being claimed by mold and mildew, being consumed by the dust- if any recalled the tears in those emerald eyes. She wondered, as she always did, at those final words Tylor had murmured into the sobbing Lloyd's ear. She wondered, and did not know.

And that was one of the last marks Tylor's presence had set upon her. He'd shaken her enough that Martel was no longer the answer to everything. There were mortal things, Devine, and something beyond both that dealt with a force that the Church of the Cruxis was never supposed to acknowledge.

Life.

"Better a poor priest then an empty one." She whispered to herself.

She cautiously made her way down the three steps of the chapel. Her walking staff once little more then a cosmetic, an accessory, now was needed to aid her steps.

Another sign of encroaching age, another whisper of coming death. The Goddess would come for her someday soon. She was, as a good priestess, supposed to quietly accept that and willingly fade away.

So went the writ of Martel.

"Hey, Phadria!"

The priestess turned, saw Lloyd and managed a smile. The boy was a heretic, and as a heretic he avoided the Sunrise Ceremony, the Dawns Prayer, and stayed in the sanctuary of his nice warm bed every chance he could get. He waved, seeing that she had spotted him, and did so again in an unorthodox manner.

Both hands wildly flapping over his head, he hopped up and down, and Phadria chuckled despite herself.

Unorthodox was something of an understatement when one strives to describe Lloyd Irving, hyper, playful; those terms also fell wildly short.

Student took after his mentor, and both had been bent on giving her more grey hairs then she had started with. And they were succeeding, remarkably well, unless you were supposed to be half grey by the time you made it to sixty years of life. He charged down the street, gracelessly avoiding Clark and his heard of sheep by jumping onto a water barrel, jumping off the top of the barrel –nearly slipping on the convex edges and getting an impromptu bath in the process- and clearing the lead sheep and haggard sheep herding dog in one bound. Cursing, Clark waved an upraised fist at the dwarf's son, but Lloyd only turned to shrug and then went on his way.

"Hey!" He slowed his dash to a mere trot seeing that Phadria wasn't going to bolt like some of the other people he'd approached at a run. "Phadria, I found you! Dad said you aren't supposed to be late so I thought I'd come by early and make sure you got thought all your priest stuff nice and fast so you could be by in time for Dad's big dinner, autumn feast thingie!"

Raising an eyebrow Phadria cocked her head to indicate the just rising sun.

"Aren't you a little early, Lloyd?"

"Well…" Lloyd squirmed, then in the face of her logic countered with illogic. "We need to get Colette and Frank, and the Professor, and Genis, and you all are everywhere in this stupid town! I have to run everywhere to find everyone and that takes a _lot_ of time!"

"Truly?" Phadria chuckled and Lloyd fell in step besides her as she left the temple.

"Unhuh, and Ivan's of course going to do everything to slow me down." The brown haired boy's face grew thoughtful. "Eriks not much better." Lloyd confided. "But he's fat, so he's slower, so he's not_ that_ bad."

"Well." Phadria wound an arm around Lloyd's shoulder, steadied him with a touch as she had once steadied Tylor with her words. Together they left the broken... no _breaking_ temple behind. "Let's go find them, so it doesn't "take forever" and you don't have to run from Ivan and Eric."


End file.
